Wil Schuurman

Who is Wil Schuurman?

Wilhelmina Berendina Schuurman is a former Dutch politician who served from 1994 until 1998 in the House of Representatives on behalf of the Centre Democrats.

In her youth, she was active in the youth organisation of the Communist Party of the Netherlands. She joined the Dutch Labour Party in the 1970s, and later the Centre Party. At the time, she was working at a boutique in The Hague and later became manager at the De Bijenkorf department store.

She moved to the Centre Democrats as secretary to Hans Janmaat and became known for losing a leg when unidentified antifascists set fire to a hotel in Kedichem in order to disrupt a party meeting taking place there on 29 March 1986.

In 1990, she joined the municipal council of The Hague on behalf of the Centre Democrats. Four years later she was elected to the House of Representatives. During her term, Schuurman was convicted of discrimination during television commercials for the Centre Democrats in 1995. She also stood for election to the European Parliament, but was not elected. She hardly ever took the floor during her time as member of the House of Representatives. In 1996, she married Hans Janmaat, leader of the parliamentary party. She was not reelected in the elections of 1998.